St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-03
THE AMERICAN GIRL.
A Virginia Girl Thinks She
Rarely Met With in Fiction.

A Virginia Girl Thinks She is
Rarely Met With in Fiction.
There has been much written about the
American girl. writes Virginia girl i'll the
Home Journal, but l have never seen
description that was at all true, Judging by
the girls l know. Mr.. Dabney describes
Alice, in his Don Miff," as the typical
Virginia girl of '5S and so. And l, who
have lived in Virginia all my life, have
never known girl who, before large
company of people, would spring up from
the breakfast table, waltz all around the
room, knock the waffies from the hands of
a servant entering the room. and take her
seat without word of apology to her host
for the lost waffies, though the Watf1eS were
plentiful at that time.
This is described as being the delightful
freedom of Virginia society; yet, as have
before said, do not know girl who would
behave so at Is. She might at -. 1t is
true that we were not young ladies in '5S
and 80, but our mothers were, and they tell
us that they were much more dignitied and
modest than we are.
No wonder the English people consider
us hoidenS when our own people describe us
as such. Sometimes we are given credit
for some dignity, but if the authors are kind
enough to endOw us with that desirable char
acteristic they are very apt to make us silly
and sentimental. Such being as sensible,
true woman is unknown among the Ameri
can girls of fiction; girl who reads sensible
books, talks naturally, and behaves we'll
abroad as we'll as at home. She may be
very much admired by the men, but her
head is not turned because one of them
smiles upon her. She is too much accuS-
toned to it for that. | confess to ignOr
ance as concerns Northern girls, but [
think Well-bred women must be the same
the world over. To a Southern girl, Mr..
Howelfs picture of Irene Lapham in love
with Mr.. Corey before he has shown the
slightest affection for her is absurd. 1t is
true that the Laphams are ordinary peo-
pie, but in the South even a girl of the
people would have a number of beauX if
she were as pretty as Irene is de-
scribed as being, to say nothing
of her money, and such slight at
tentions as Corey's would not be
thought of seriously at all. Here young
man may visit girl several times a week
and pay her great deal of public attention.
and yet 1t will never occur to her that he is
in love with her unless he tries to make her
think so. Even then, if she is sensible, he
must be very direct and sincere about it be-
fore she believes him. But we do not pub
ish our engagements, and girl may have
many gentlemen friends even when she is en-
gagged. She values them as she does her
girl friends, and is frequently truer to
man who is simply friend than she would
be to lover.
Perhaps it is the natural cOnceit of man
or perhaps it is ignorance On his part-at
any rate he is fond of describing us as
creatures who are all heart with little
brains. And l verify believe that men in
general think that women cannot be
wise without being masculine. A
true woman wishes to be, and is, es-
sentially feminine. She objects to nothing
SO much as maSculineness. But may she
not be cultivated without being masculine?
Some men seem to think not, and they try
hard to give us a false idea of what a
womanly woman is. When L was 1871 re-
member young man told me that he
thought woman ought to know how to
sew and keep house, and read little poetry
and novel or two. but that if she knew
any more she was tiresome, and apt to be
masculine. besides she certainly would neg
lect her home He was very bright young
man. and possessed some culture. Wishing
to know if other men thought as he did, l
asked one his opinion on the subject. He
said he did not think it was possible for a
woman to be too cultivated, and if she Gull
tivated her heart with her mind her hus-
band need not be afraid that her house
would be neglected by his clever wife.